Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State has said that the ability of those asking him to contest the 2023 Presidency to mobilise Nigerian youths to join the All Progressives Congress (APC) ahead of the election will determine his decision on their calls.
The Director-General, Governor Yahaya Bello to President Yahaya (GYB2PYB) Youth Support Group, Mr. Oladele Niyi, said this on Friday in Abuja at a news conference.
Governor Bello is the chairman of the APC Women and Youth and Persons with Disability Sensitisation and Mobilisation Committee on its national membership registration and revalidation exercise.
It would be recalled that the youths had earlier given Governor Bello a 14-day ultimatum to accept its call on him to contest the 2023 Presidency.
Niyi at the conference said the governor acknowledged that his refusal to comment on their ultimatum may be subject to litigation by the youths.
“As a result, therefore, and to spare our already over worked judiciary more avoidable work, he will neither be accepting nor declining our ultimatum at the moment. Instead, he has thrown a challenge to the GYB2PYB Youth Support Group and all other groups that have urged and called upon him to contest the 2023 presidency.
“He has challenged us to partake in the ongoing membership mobilisation, sensitisation registration, and revalidation exercise of the APC,” Niyi said.
He added that Bello charged the group to triple APC membership base across the country ahead of the 2023 general election by mobilising Nigerian youths, women and persons living with disabilities to register as APC members.
He added that Governor Bello through the group, urged all other youth groups across the country to join him and his committee to bring more members into the APC fold.
Niyi said, “He has urged us that after we succeed together in this onerous exercise, we can then sit down to consider other opportunities we can take advantage of in order to take our destiny in our hands.”